6) Psychology
A stock is up 15% in a day, your Twitter timeline is full of profit screenshots, WhatsApp groups are screaming 'to the moon!'. Your fingers itch to buy even though you know nothing about the stock. If you've felt this, welcome to the world of FOMO.
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is the fear of missing profits that drives investors to buy stocks without adequate analysis, simply because they see others profiting. It's one of the most dangerous psychological biases in the stock market.
Imagine walking in a mall and seeing an insanely long queue at a new restaurant. You don't know if the food is good, don't know the price, but your brain immediately says 'it must be amazing — look at the queue!'. So you wait 45 minutes, only to find mediocre food at premium prices. FOMO in stocks is exactly like that — you buy because it's popular, not because it's good.
Classic example: GOTO's IPO in 2022. Many people who had never bought stocks before suddenly opened brokerage accounts and bought GOTO at its IPO price of Rp338. Their reason? 'Everyone's buying it', 'We all use GoJek', 'It must go up'. The result? The stock dropped more than 70% from IPO price. FOMO at a national level.
After understanding this concept, apply it in tools so decisions become more objective and measurable.
Open Profit / Loss CalculatorHow do you tell real opportunity from FOMO?
Real opportunities usually come when the market is quiet and others are fearful, not when it's buzzing. If you can answer 'why this stock deserves to be bought' based on fundamentals (not because 'everyone's buying'), that's an opportunity. If your only reason is 'everyone's buying' or 'it keeps going up', that's FOMO.
Is FOMO always bad?
FOMO that drives you to start learning about investing is good. But FOMO that drives you to go all-in without analysis is dangerous. Channel FOMO energy into learning, not impulsive buying. It's better to 'miss out' on one stock than to lose 50% of your capital.
